Days went by, then weeks and weeks went by. I still wanted the house. I continued to draw the interior tweaking every detail. I also delved more into research on decorating and renovating mid century modern homes. Names like Eames, Nelson, Knoll and Wright, to name a few were continually coming up. As those weeks went by, the housing market took an upswing. The listing price of homes was climbing, which meant I could get more for my home when I sold it. It also meant that the blue house was coming more into line of what it really should be sold for. There were still no other offers on the house. It seems no one has an eye for seeing past ghastly decorating. The privacy and beauty of the 1/4 acre it was inhabiting was in itself worth a pretty penny. This diamond in the rough was also close to all amenities, not out in the boonies miles away from civilization.
I did a lot of combing around, looking for the style of house I loved so much. I did find them popping up here and there but what I lacked exposing was a neighborhood as appealing as my little street of dreams.
Finally, I decided that because I could get at least $15,000 more than previously expected for my house I would give one more stab and put another offer on the blue house. It made sense. Rambo's house stayed the same list price and mine had, if I placed it on the market, increased in value. I called my agent. I offered $19,000 less than the listing price, an inspection and another contractor visit. The inspection and contractor was agreed upon but the bugger didn't accept my reasonable offer. I told my agent I would try one more offer and that definitely would be it. This guy was in la la land if he thought he would get anything close to his asking price. I was the only person after all these weeks, who wanted his house. Apparently his agent was getting perturbed with him as well. I decided to offer $3,000.00 more and that was it. I would definitely move on. I was done! I was at the point where I would let the powers that be decide whether I'd get the house or not. My agent put the offer in and....guess what?...he did not accept. When my agent phoned to let me know, I basically said thanks for all your help. If you see any other house I may be interested in give me a call. I was at peace. I trusted the fact that if I was meant to have the house I would. If I wasn't, then there was something down the road that would be even better for me.
My youngest daughter came into the kitchen asking me about it while I prepared dinner. Interestingly enough she said...."Can he change his mind on your offer?"
I said "I'm not sure".
At that exact moment...and I'm not fibbing, the phone rang. I chuckled to her, "Wouldn't it be funny if that was him changing his mind?" I looked at the call display. It was my Realtor. My heart met my stomach. Rambo did change his mind.... well kind of.... He wanted to ponder the offer overnight. I agreed. One more night meant nothing and I really did feel like what would be would be. I was however, fairly certain I would be getting it at this point and I was right. The next morning I did.
It wasn't over yet. The offer was on the condition that I sell my home. I had only a few short days to sell it or someone else could come along and buy the blue house from under me. That made me a little nervous even though, surprisingly, there had been no other offers on the blue house except lil' ol' me. My house went on the market the next day. I decided to try and get more than I thought I could for it even though the comparative homes were quite a bit less. The first person who went through was very interested and set up a time to see it again but this time with her husband. The husband didn't like it. Obviously, he had no taste. In the meantime I also had to get the inspection done on the blue house. I was crossing my fingers that the house was worth buying.
The blue house was found to possess an old oil tank buried in the ground. This was a major find. It was an environmental issue and had to be removed. I certainly wasn't willing to incur the cost of that. The house also had wacky electrical but since I knew I was gutting the house and wanted rooms switched around it didn't seem like a big deal. What was a big deal though was the monthly heating bill. I wasn't a fan of the cost of that and chalked up the heat loss to all the single pane windows and sub-standard insulation. What I wanted to know from him was...is there insulation in the roof and walls. He assurred me the insulation was under the torch on roofing and said yes, there was insulation in the walls but obviously not up to todays standards. All in all the inspection went well except we needed to go back to the home owner for him to remove the old oil tank. Honestly, because Rambo was so daffy I didn't think he would agree. My agent pointed out that because we had exposed the oil tank he would have to reveal that to any other buyer.
To my delight he agreed to remove it. I was one step closer to owning the blue house but I still needed another contractor to go through it for my own peace of mind....and furthermore had to sell my house.
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